Storms update.

Photo courtesy of Team AU of the German Air Force Air Defense Center, Ft. Bliss

In the midst of the devastation being visited upon my hometown last week, the skies broke and this rainbow appeared. Fortunately, a friend who works at Fort Bliss forwarded this great photo to me, courtesy of Team AU of the German Air Force Air Defense Center here at Ft. Bliss, TX. What a wonderful capture of a rainbow in its entirety. I like to think of it as a portent of better things ahead. But first, there were still more miseries to be visited upon El Pasoans.

Several days after this photo and forty miles from home, we braved the biggest challenge of our 4,038 mile trip by driving directly into the eye of an extremely ominous storm that rushed out of El Paso to greet us. I interpreted that as a final test of our resolve towards our quest--to be back home. We made it!

Walking around the neighborhood the following day and surveying the immediate damage, I concluded we had been very lucky to only experience a couple of leaks in our ceiling. As I reported here afterwards, everything in our favorite natural food store was lost. The good news from this week revealed they plan to reopen as soon as they can. In the meantime, their employees are continuing to get paid. That's pretty radical for an American company.

In our neighborhood I initially reported, "two houses just up the street abutting ours will have to be gutted or destroyed." Well, I'm pleased to say the rumors of their demise--much like Castro's ?-- were greatly exaggerated. Both of them are now vacant, but during the day someone comes to open all doors and windows to help them dry out. A truck appeared to remove the furniture of one. Other trucks have carted off the mud deposited there. But the best sign for optimism is rebar that's been laid to soon be covered with new concrete that will be poured outside one of them.

FEMA was in El Paso over the weekend as well. They were surveying damages to the area. And there was lots. One of the neighborhoods where residents have STILL not been allowed back in their homes since the storm 10 days ago, was not seen by FEMA officials. That's because they couldn't access the area either. They have now returned to Washington where the president will determine if the area will qualify for federal aid money.

In the meantime, I've decided to ignore forecasts for the rains to be returning as the weekend deepens. I've opted to take that rainbow as prediction of "the worst is behind us" instead. Hopefully, it is.